In a Nutshell. Today Greece is one of the smaller and less important nations of Europe. Her size is approximately that of Alabama even counting all of her islands and her population less than New York's. In a way it is hard to believe that this is the land from which sprang Western Civilization.

Mainland Greece is not, largely, one of the more attractive countries of the continent. The greater part of her land area is mountainous, rocky and colorless. There are exceptions, of course, many of them.

It is in her coasts and her islands that Greece achieves beauty, and I doubt if I've ever taken a more exciting trip by sea than those inter-island journeys that leave Piraeus, the port of Athens, for the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, Crete, Lesbos, Corfu and the others. On such trips it is easily seen why the Greeks, or rather the Minoans who preceded them, became the first great seafarers. Each island of the Aegean Sea is within sight of two or three more at least. And they stretch like a bridge from the Asia Minor coast to the Greek mainland. Even primitive man must have been able to construct adequate craft to make such short journeys early in human history. In fact, remains are found on the larger islands of the Neolithic period.

Greece, at the height of her Golden Age achieved pinnacles that many scholars consider never to have been passed since. The Par­thenon on the Acropolis is named the most perfect building ever constructed. The greatest philosophers the world has known walked the streets of Athens hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The sciences, our modern law, the theatre, literature, all had either their beginnings or tremendous impetus from this poor land.

Today she is largely a sad memory. Everywhere you see the re­mains of the Old Greece, the temples, the walls, the theatres, the sad fallen columns. And it is in this Old Greece that you find the land's appeal, for modern Greece is one of the most poverty stricken and backward countries of Europe. Only in Spain, Portugal and Yugoslavia do you see the poverty that you find in Greece.

As always when wages are low and the people poor, the country is a cheap place in which to reside. Greece is today, possibly the cheapest country in Europe, the only possible rival being Spain, another land of poverty and low wages. As always, the larger cities such as Athens and Salonica are higher priced but even Athens is cheap compared to any other capital of Europe.

I would say that to retire in Greece, either on a small income or with the intention of working out some local manner of making a living, you should have a basic interest in the cultural back­ground of the country, otherwise you might find life in Greece on the drab and uninteresting side, particularly if you remained in Athens or elsewhere on the mainland.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. No visa is required of an American, only a passport. When you enter as a tourist you are given a stamp entitling you to remain for two months. Don't overstay this period or you'll be fined when you leave the country, even though you are one day over. I speak from experience.

If you wish to remain for more than two months you must go to the local branch of the Alien Police Office where you will be given a six month permit to reside in Greece. If you stay beyond this, you must have the permit renewed. It sounds complicated, but isn't. It takes only a short time to complete this process. The Greeks are happy to have you in their country—spending your dollars.

When you enter the country you have to make out a currency declaration on which you list all the types of money you have on hand and their quantity. When you leave the country, they check to see that you aren't taking out more than you entered with. At least they are supposed to do this. I found that often the border officials didn't bother.

TRANSPORTATION. By air you can reach Athens, at this writ­ing for $435.40 one way, tourist from New York. TWA makes the flight direct, taking about 24 hours. Other airlines flying in from the West are Air France, BEA, KLM, LAI, SAS, SABENA, and Swissair. The Hellenikon airport of Athens is one of the basic international airports, and from here flights head south for Egypt and Africa, north to Turkey and the Balkans, or east to Baghdad, India and beyond.

The former Greek National Airline has been taken over by the big shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who seems to own half of Greece as well as half the world's tankers, and the name has been changed to Olympic Airways. I have flown this airline between Athens and Rhodes and between Rhodes and Beirut, Lebanon, but have never taken the longer hops which now run to Paris and London as well as other European centers. Frankly, I wasn't overimpressed.

By sea, there are various shipping lines that serve Greece. Basic fare from New York is $240 tourist class out of season and $270 in season. First class has a minimum of $415 out of season and $450 in season. This on the National Hellenic American Line ships such as the Queen Frederica. The Greek Line's Olympia also at this writing runs between New York and Piraeus and is particu­larly constructed with tourist travel in mind having 1150 tourist class berths and only 138 first class. The Italian Line runs the Saturnia and the Vulcania between New York and Piraeus and the Christoforo Colombo by the way of Naples, Italy. The Ameri­can Export Lines have the Independence and the Constitution on the same run.

You can also reach Greece by sea from some points in Europe such as Malaga, Spain; Naples, Genoa and Venice, Italy; Mar­seilles, France. Or even take the inter-island boat between Brindisi, Italy and Corfu, the resort island on the west coast of Greece.

I've gone into such detail on air and sea approaches because, frankly, coming overland can be grim. The Simplon-Orient Express comes from London, going through France, Switzerland, Italy and Yugoslavia on its way. From London to Trieste she is rather swank but on the Yugoslavia border there is a change. I once was on the Simplon-Orient Express when it had only the locomotive, one restaurant car, one wagon-lits (Pullman) and one coach car which contained first, second and third class seats—all three. From Trieste to Athens is a long, hard, dirty train ride, one of the most miserable in Europe.

Trains in general are poor in Greece. I usually travel second class on European trains but in Greece I go first. Even that is no treat, particularly on the shorter runs. Buses are somewhat better but roads are so poor that these too are no treat.

Driving to Greece is absolutely not recommended. Greek roads are poor enough but Yugoslavia ones are unbelievably bad espe­cially in the Eastern parts of the country. Best bet, probably, if you have your own car and want to take it to Greece would be to drive down to Brindisi, Italy, and ferry it over to Corfu.

THE GREEKS. The Greeks will tell you that everyone in Greece would like to immigrate to the United States, including the king. And they aren't joking. I doubt that there is a family in Greece that doesn't have more than one close relative in the United States. It is a regular tradition with them to go to America, make their fortunes, and possibly even take out citizenship and then to return to their own country in their old age to live out their lives. A fortune to a Greek can be pretty small potatoes since even a Social Security pension is a lot of money in Greece. I knew quite a few women in Rhodes whose husbands had gone to the United States figuring on staying twenty or thirty years and then returning. The wives were patiently sitting out the time. Each month a check would come from America to keep them and the children.

With all this it becomes obvious that America and Americans are well known and well liked by the Greeks. A great deal of English is spoken and you have no difficulty in making your wants known. This is one country in which it seems almost impossible to learn even the few words needed for shopping and the conduct of every day life, but it's not too necessary to attempt to learn Greek since so many of the people speak your language.

MONEY. One hundred lepta make one drachma and a drachma is worth almost exactly 31/3. Coins run from 5 lepta to 5 drachma and banknotes go up to 1,000 drachma.

Only a few years ago Greece had one of the weakest currencies in Europe and finally the drachma fell to the point where it took 30,000 to make one dollar. However, Uncle Sam came to the rescue and backed the Greek currency. The Greek government, to simplify things, merely lopped off the last three zeros in 1954 and the money has remained firm ever since. There is little if any advantage in bringing free market money into Greece. You might as well change your dollars at the bank or at your hotel.

WORK PERMISSION. You are not allowed to work in Greece without government permission which is seldom granted if a Greek can do the job. In some areas, such as Rhodes, which is only a few miles from Turkey and consequently a military zone, and near the Turkish frontier you are not even allowed to buy property. How­ever, this is usually accomplished when desired by buying it through a Greek friend and in his name. The officials almost always blink at the practice.

There is little if any difficulty in starting up a business on your own especially if it is the type that will bring dollars or other foreign currency into the country. Greece is anxious for the intro­duction of foreign capital into her poverty stricken country.

PRICES. As I have already said above, prices are probably as cheap as anywhere in Europe. Even in such tourist resorts as Rhodes and Corfu it would be quite possible for a couple to retire on a hundred dollars a month in relative comfort. Add another fifty to that and you could afford a full time servant and to drive a car.

Prices will vary considerably between Athens and the other large cities and the small islands seldom touched by foreigners. An apart­ment, American style, in Athens would probably run you $75 and up which isn't exactly cheap, but I have been told that on such islands as Cos in the Dodecanese, you could find a cottage or small house for as little as $10 a month and a mansion for $25. When I stayed on the island of Rhodes I paid $24 a month for my two bedroom apartment. This was no luxury flat, however, it came equipped with a modern bath and was completely furnished. Some of the U.S. service families, who received housing allotments, of course, demand exact American standards and would pay $50 or so for a comfortable place. The higher ranking officers got rather palatial houses for $75 and $100.

Once again according to where you live, a servant will run about $10 a month and up, plus keep. You can get them considerably cheaper on islands such as Crete but, on the other hand, prices naturally are higher in Athens. A good cook might go as much as $25 a month, but she'd have to be very good.

Food prices are low. Meat averages 50^ a pound and this will be difficult to believe but filet mignon costs the same as brisket. Government regulations make the whole steer the same price, so its a matter of daily fighting with the butcher to give you a good cut. Bread is very cheap, about 3l/s cents a loaf. Vegetables are as low priced as any place and Greek oranges about a penny apiece. Butter is somewhat cheaper than in the States but margarine about the same. Poultry is high and of poor quality and eggs only slightly cheaper than at home.

On the island of Rhodes there are no import taxes, the result of a government measure to attract tourists and consequently there are some unbelievable bargains. I had tailored of Harris tweed a sport jacket which came to $26. The tailor was one of the best in Greece and had made a dozen suits for the admiral of the Sixth Fleet which sometimes pulls into Rhodes. I am sure the same jacket would cost $125 or so in New York. My wife had tailored a full tweed coat with a skirt to match, the best of Irish Donegal. Total cost, $35. This same lack of tax results in German cameras selling for less than they do in Germany, French perfumes for less than in France, Swiss watches for less than in Switzerland. German, Danish, Dutch and Czech beers, the best in the world, sell for .20 a quart and name brand Scotch whiskeys for $2 a bottle, a third of what they cost in Scotland.

§

PARTICULARLY RECOMMENDED LOCALITIES. I can't recommend the mainland at all, and of the islands I really know well only Rhodes and Corfu.

In some respects Corfu has its advantages over Rhodes as a retirement spot. For one thing it is only a short ferry hop, a mile or so, from the mainland, while Rhodes is an overnight trip by inter-island boat. And Corfu is also handy in that it is easily avail­able to Italy. An overnight trip takes you to Brindisi and from there you are in Naples or Rome in a matter of hours. Corfu has a large foreign colony too, particularly retired English, while the foreign colony of Rhodes is largely limited to the permanently based American servicemen there. The swimming, the scenery, the prices on Corfu, we have no arguments about. It is a charming, pleasant island on which to consider retirement.

However, the town of Rhodes, on the island of Rhodes, is the most beautiful city in the world.

I have done a good deal of traveling in the past decade and can state that of all cities these I think the most beautiful: Mexico City, Paris, Rome, Venice, New Orleans, San Francisco, Istanbul and Tangier (not necessarily in that order). But Rhodes is the most beautiful city in the world.

In the days of the Trojan War there were three Greek towns on the island and they supplied ships to join Agamemnon's expedition against Troy, but in the year 408 B.C. they decided to unite and form one big town which they named Rhodes. Later the city fell to the Romans and later the Byzantines took over. But in 1308 the Knights of St. John, a Crusader order, captured the island and it was they who built the city we see today.

Rhodes is a medieval city. The walls which still surround it are in good enough condition to withhold a siege right now. It's streets are still cobblestoned, the shops where you buy bread, wine and olive oil for your daily needs are the same shops that dealt in the same commodities 600 years ago. The little taberna where you stop to have a glass of beer or retsina wine once served knights in armor.

Rhodes means Roses and indeed this is an island of flowers. The parks that surround the moats of the fortress walls are abloom with flowers all year around and are particularly heavily splashed with reds.

I believe that I've already stated in this book that there is no place in Europe that equals the climate of Florida or even southern California. No place where you can swim all year round. The nearest to it is achieved on the Costa del Sol of Spain and in the Dodecanese Islands of which Rhodes is the capital. In Rhodes we found the best climate in Europe.

When the United States began spotting broadcast stations about the world to pipe our propaganda into the communist and Near East countries, Rhodes was one of the chosen locations. Here is permanently stationed the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter, the Courier. And on it are more than one hundred American servicemen.

The coming of the Courier brought big changes to Rhodes which ordinarily has a population of 28,000. Some forty of the servicemen brought their families but that was just the beginning. Various civilians connected with the Voice of America, also showed up. And teachers for the American school. And doctors and den­tists of Greek-American extraction. Uncle Sam paid the way for the service men bringing over their cars, refrigerators and other American needs.

Greek houses were not up to American standards, so new houses were built, and this amounted to a regular little building boom since most of the local population were dwelling in houses erected five hundred years ago. The shop-keepers put in new products they'd never heard of before to meet new demands. News shops opened carrying American newspapers and magazines.

The American money was a boon to the Greeks and it also works out well for a civilian American living on Rhodes. The presence of these State-side comforts, many of which are not to be found in other sections of Greece, makes living that much the easier.

And there's another angle. The service families are periodically rotated and seldom do they take back home all the refrigerators, stoves and what-not gadgets that they brought out with them. In­stead they are sold locally for whatever they will bring and I will estimate that there is no place else outside of the United States where American household applicances are so economically priced, second hand.

I think the little city of Rhodes is one of the top places in the world for retirement. There is just one limitation which is a serious one for such gregarious persons as myself. Your companionship is largely limited to the service families from the Courier most of whom are quite young, few of whom have much in the way of education. There are some wonderful exceptions, but let's face it, on the average the professional serviceman isn't the best company in the world.

CASE HISTORY No. 1. Talk about starting a business on a shoe­string. In Rhodes I met a young fellow who couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 years of age who started his business with about twenty used paperbacked books. And he made them pay well enough to parlay into a business that, when I saw him last, was going great guns.

Walter Pond came over to Europe on a Youth Hostels tour, figuring on a few months in Europe living on as tight a budget as possible, and then returning to the States to get a job. He'd had half a year of college, I believe, but had quit in disgust figuring that what he was getting out of it in the way of education wasn't worth the time he was putting in. There have been similar attacks on the American educational system recently, but Walt was particularly bitter.

At any rate, he was getting around Europe largely by hitch­hiking (they call it "auto-stop" on the continent) and although he hadn't planned to go as far as Greece he caught a ride in Italy with an American driving a station wagon to Athens. It was too good a chance to resist, so Walt went along.

The trouble with Walt was (and probably still is) that he blew his money. He just couldn't hold onto it. It burned holes in his pockets, or something. He found himself in Rhodes with far too little left to return to the States. So he looked around to find a way to pick up some dollars, without conflicting with Greek law. And right from the start he fell upon a situation that applies almost everywhere where Americans live abroad.

The shortage of reading material.

Unless they live in England or some other English speaking locality, the Americans you find abroad seem always short of reading material. When the American does locate a bookstore or newsstand that handles American paperbacked books, they almost always charge double the price that prevails in the States.

When I first saw Walt he was carrying a tray, slung by a leather strap around his neck. It contained possibly fifty used American and British paperback books, mostly detective, science-fiction and western, but a few of more serious nature as well. I was seated at a sidewalk cafe in front of the town market.

I asked him the price, glad to see him. I was currently out of light reading. The price was 8 drachma (about .25) straight or 4 drachma with a trade in.

"Trade in?" I asked him.

He explained that if I gave him a book with which I was finished, it counted for four drachma which lowered my price in half.

At that time I was staying at the Lindos Hotel, right around the corner. I told him to come with me and took him up to my room. I had at least ten books, all of which I had figured on throwing away rather than being bothered with their bulk. I gave him the ten and selected ten more from his stock, paying him his 40 drachma difference. Believe me, I thought it was a bargain. Forty drachma, by the way, comes to $1.33.

Four days later he dropped by the hotel with a new selection of books and I traded in my ten on a new batch. I also told him that at last I'd found an apartment and gave him the address. From then on he dropped in once or twice a week, especially when he had a batch of science fiction, which is a favorite of mine.

It turned out that most of the American families in town were customers of Walt's. He acted as a sort of one man circulating library. Everybody in town who did much reading would occa­sionally buy a book or two at the newsstand which specialized in American publications, and these would usually wind up in Walt's hands. Some of the servicemen or their wives had books sent out from home, and these too would wind up with Walt. Besides this he had contacts with the hotels which drew the most American tourists. Those magazines and paperback books that were tossed away by the tourists were sold by the maids to Walt for one drachma apiece.

How much did he make from this "business"? I could never get him to tell me but I know that he never left my house with less than a dollar profit. And I am not nearly the reader that some Ameri­cans abroad can be. He was living in a medium priced hotel, on pension, was outfitting himself with tailored clothes, taking ad­vantage of the rock-bottom prices on Rhodes, and saving money.

He usually put in a leisurely three or four hours a day visiting his customers and once told me that he couldn't decide whether or not to start a small used book store, and let the customers come to him in the future. However, he was also thinking of shaking the dust of Greece from his shoes and going to Spain or France for a time. He figured he could do this in just about any town in Europe where there was a permanent Anglo-American colony.

Could you do it?

I don't see any reason why anybody couldn't. I don't think you'd ever get rich at it, but I'll tell you one thing, you'd never starve at a business like this in any American colony abroad. The desire for reading material is always a pressing one.

Of course the thing to do would be to parlay this up. With just a very little capital you could open a shop. There is a used book store in Tangier operated by an American, who also specializes in paper­backs. He too allows one half the price of the book if you have one to trade-in. I've never talked to the owner of this establishment at great length, but the shop always seems packed with customers and he dresses and looks prosperous enough. I doubt if it cost him more than a few hundred dollars to start up in business. He gets most of his books from trade-ins and from the hotel maids, just as Walt did in Rhodes.

§

CASE HISTORY No. 2. This may sound corny but in more than one European city with a large American colony you'll find Ameri­can women making a good thing out of cooking such things as pies.

What happens is this. We have a whole new American generation which is used to getting its pastry either from the bakery or out of cans or the deep freeze. Either that or they rely on special pie mixes and fillers which are unavailable in the rest of the world.

The result is that Americans abroad develop a raging hunger for such items as pie, and a rage against their wives for not delivering.

So Mrs. Joan Demeree, retired with her husband on Rhodes on an inadequate army disability pension, saw an opening and filled it. Mrs. Demeree, a young fifty years of age, comes from a small farm in southern Illinois. The poor stoves and other equipment that confront the cook in Greece didn't faze her for a moment. She'd learned to cook on a wood fire—and still preferred one, for that matter.

Actually, I was wrong when I said Mrs. Demeree saw an opening and filled it. The opening was pointed out to her and she was pushed into it. From time to time she'd have friends in for dinner and it was no period at all before the fame of her pies, cakes and other typical American dishes spread. Finally somebody hesitantly asked Mrs. Demeree if she would please do her up four lemon meringue pies—she had a party coming up and the pies would just make it.

So Mrs. Demeree made up the pies, neighborly enough, and figured out exactly what they had cost and presented that small amount as the bill. But nothing would do but her friend must double it, to take care of the time involved.

Mrs. Demeree didn't know it as yet but she was in business.

And the last time I saw her, still was. I would estimate that her cooking of American dishes which included pies, cakes, cookies, chili-con-carne, tamale pie, baked beans and home made ice cream, netted her approximately as much as her husband's pension. She didn't work too hard at it either.

Could you do this?

You could if you are as good a cook as Mrs. Demeree and as good at adapting local materials to your favorite American dishes. That's where most American cooks fall down abroad, they can't find exactly the same raw materials they've been used to. I don't know of an Anglo-American colony in Europe that wouldn't (figuratively) give its right arm for a good American-style cook to do up State side specialties, to cater parties, even to make up picnic lunches and such.

It's a wide open field. For that matter, I'd wager that you could make a good living in a town like Torremolinos, Spain, with noth­ing more than an old fashioned hand operated ice cream freezer and a good formula for making ice cream. If you've never been abroad you can't imagine how hungry people get for the food of home and particularly the favorite dishes of their childhood.

CASE HISTORY No. 3. While I'm on this subject of eating U.S. favorites abroad I might as well bring up the case of a young fellow I met in Athens who was obviously living fairly high on the hog. We met while mutually inspecting one of the best preserved of all the Greek temples, the Theseion, they call it. We struck up a con­versation and wound up having a bottle of Fix beer in a taberna.

It turned out that he wasn't any more the usual tourist than I was. He was making a comfortable living while seeing Europe—as I was. So I asked him what his particular angle was.

Selling popcorn.

Selling popcorn! I looked at him and probably blinked. I had a picture of this neatly dressed, prosperous fellow peddling popcorn at a nickle a bag.

That wasn't it, but nearly.

Bob Segal (I think that's the way you spell his name) who hailed from L. A. originally, is one of the many who are profiting by the "Americanization" mania which is sweeping much of the world. Chewing gum, Coca-Cola, breakfast cereals that pop, juke boxes, ice cream sodas, rock'n'roll, pinball machines, kitchen gadgets and what not are rearing their heads in just about every land this side of the Iron Curtain, and for that matter, often behind it.

No matter how much you love your own country, it often comes as a surprise to find people who have never seen America who love it still more, or seem to. I have been in homes in as obscure places as Baghdad where you wouldn't know it wasn't a suburb of Chicago. The furniture was literally from Grand Rapids and I was served canned tomato juice with ice cubes from the king-size refrigerator. AND THERE WAS A TELEVISION SET IN THE CORNER ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO TV BROADCASTING STATION WITHIN A THOUSAND MILES.

Take my word for it, the world is being Americanized.

And that's where Bob came in. He first hit on his scheme in Spain where the tapa is an institution. Spanish folk never drink without eating. Every time you order a drink in a bar, a tapa is put before you. This can be a piece of bread and cheese, three or four fried fresh sardines, a portion of squid fried in olive oil, two or three cold boiled shrimp, a tiny portion of stew or various other tasty items. Every time you buy a drink they bring another tapa and it is quite possible in Spain to get a full meal this way if your capacity for wine is great enough. In the swankier bars the tapas are usually more elaborate and you're usually charged for them.

So Bob located a supply of popcorn, which to his surprise is sold all over Spain in the feed stores. The Spanish feed it to their chickens. He popped up a large batch in oil, salted it, put it in extra-large paper bags and took it around to the local bars. He gave it to the bartenders free, having a little difficulty in doing even that since they were suspicious.

"The American tapa," he told them. "All Americans eat it. In the bars, in the movies, while looking at TV, while watching sports. Americans are always eating popcorn."

That sold them. They tried it on the customers, explaining that this was the famous American tapa.

Well, popcorn sold itself. There is nothing more thirst provoking than popcorn and nothing more irresistible. It is impossible to eat a dozen or so kernals of nice buttered and salted popcorn and not want more. When Bob Segal went back he found a unanimous response from the bartenders. He was in business.

In no time at all he found himself branching out. Party givers— and parties are as numerous as the sands in any foreign colony resort—would order huge amounts. He imported an automatic popper from the States and opened a stand with a cute little Spanish girl to operate it, on the streets of Malaga.

"Before I knew it," Bob laughed, "I was the popcorn tycoon of southern Spain. It wasn't safe, though. Not in that country. It was just a matter of time before some corrupt official figured out I was making money and decided to take over."

"You could've taken on a Spanish partner," I told him. "That's what you usually do in Spain."

"I suppose so, but I didn't. I sold out for plenty. I was getting tired of Spain anyway."

It turned out that he had made a leisurely tour of Europe, look­ing for another country where the institution of eating while drinking was widespread and where Americans were popular. Greece was his choice. When I met Bob he was getting set to go into business—bringing popcorn to the Greeks. I have a sneaking suspicion that by this time every bar in Athens is carrying the stuff.

I'm not particularly suggesting that the readers of this book go into the popcorn business. The point I'm trying to make is that many of our American "institutions" are taking root abroad and there are scores of opportunities to put your American "know-how" to work. I was not jesting above when I suggested that an ice cream freezer and a good formula for American type ice cream would put you in business in half the countries of Europe. Except for the ultra-expensive spumoni and casata of Italy, ice cream in Europe, and especially southern Europe is lousy. It's also ridic­ulously expensive, especially in view of the fact that milk is surprisingly cheap.

It's also my belief that American candy would make a fabulous hit. I don't know of anyone who has tried this, but I think that an American candy shop would go over with a bang in any of the countries covered in this book. Fudge, taffy, divinity, I have never seen in Europe. Americans living abroad would go overboard for it, not to speak of the Europeans who on an average are more inclined to have a sweet tooth than we at home.

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